Just thinking ...

Technology
10/5/2009 6:22:28 AM by: Elsi

October 4, 1957 (52 years ago yesterday)—the day Russia launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. You could see it going by overhead if you knew where to look. And it was scary: we were sure the Russians were spying on us as we stood in the backyard. After all, St. Louis was a first-strike city; with McDonnell-Douglas making fighter jets, we'd be wiped out in the first wave of Russia's nuclear attack on the country. It was a frightening and odd time to live ... but Sputnik was the beginning of JFK's space race, the moon walk, the Space Shuttle and International Space Station!
On October 4, 2009, I went to Home Depot to get a drill chuck and some timberlocks to put a log bed together. Eric, in tools, was friendly and helpful, and I decided to thank the store for hiring him. Thus I entered the evil-twin side of advanced technology. It seems you can't just thank a manager at Home Depot; you have to log into their computer survey system. Once there, you have to answer a long string of idiotic questions, ranging from store cleanliness to speed of checkout, and including: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with the innovative supplies at Home Depot?" But I didn't want anything innovative! I just wanted a chuck!
And so, the few times the survey allowed me to add comments (such as, "what other stores do you shop at?"), I angrily typed, "This is a stupid survey! All I wanted was to thank Eric in tools for his help!"
Computers ... good tools, often misused ...